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Yan was selected to compete for the vacant belt and after being forced out of his scheduled clash with the newly retired Cejudo, Aldo was tabbed as his UFC 251 opponent, leaving Moraes to watch as the man he was supposed to fight and the man he defeated last December battled to determine the new UFC bantamweight champion.
In the span of a couple months, Moraes went from facing Yan in a five-round main event that would likely determine the next title challenger, to being the guy on the outside of the title picture looking in, unsure of when he would fight next and who he would face.
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“I wanted to fight and I wanted to get my fight,” said Moraes. “I knew I needed another one to get to the belt, so I got a little upset because I got left on the side and I had no fight. The other guys that I could fight, they didn’t want to fight me. I ended up getting left and didn’t know what to do.
“I tried to get back in there,” continued the talented Brazilian veteran. “I tried Dominick Cruz. I tried Rob Font. I tried every single one, other fights we had before — Cody Stamann, (Jimmie) Rivera, (Aljamain) Sterling. I tried fighting any of the Top 10 guys and things just didn’t work out. I just tried to stay positive and stay training because I knew at some point I was going to get a fight.”
Finally, in early August, the fight with Sandhagen materialized.